The Eno River, at a somewhat underwhelming 40-miles in length, might seem to get get more attention than it deserves. I'm here to tell you, it ought to get more. This short tributary of the Neuse River is one of the most pristine and scenic waterways in the Piedmont and perhaps anywhere in North Carolina. It's clear waters surrounded by lush forests and sprinkled with boulders and ledges provide a wonderfully wild place to escape and unwind in a region of North Carolina becoming increasingly filled by people and development.

Eno River State Park, established in 1975, protects some 9-miles of this valuable waterway within it's 3,900 acres. Five main access areas provide a gateway to the river and also a fairly extensive network of trails. On this day I'd be heading for the Few's Ford Access, the westernmost in the park. My intent was to follow a figure-eight loop of the Buckquarter Creek and Holden's Mill Trails past some of the most rugged portions of the river as well as a couple historic sites dating back to when this stretch of river bottom was a busy commercial location. Numerous mills and home-sites have been located along the Eno in the last 250 years but little remains but piles of stone and old foundations. It was my intent to experience both a bit of the history of the Eno as well as its widely acclaimed scenic beauty. It was a hot one this day, but it was time to put a few more miles on my boots and explore yet another of North Carolina's State Park gems...

The small visitor center is tucked neatly into the trees. I was a bit disappointed to find a complete lack of exhibits on the park, however. Frustrating as I know this area has both an interesting cultural as well as natural history...

My hike for the day began adjacent to the historic Piper-Cox House. Unfortunately the park has not felt the need to place any informational boards around explaining the history of the home so I'm a little lacking for a story here. I did find out it was built in the mid to late-1800's and was one of the finer houses in the region. The back of the house appears to be the original part of the home with the front being added later...

A look at what I assume to be the older, possibly original, portion of the Piper-Cox Home. Another rather disappointing discovery was that the historic home seems to be a huge storage unit for the park as I discovered by looking in a couple windows...

Few's Ford, I found out later, has quite a long history. The land surrounding the ford was first settled in 1758 by a man named William Few, Sr. Over the last 250 years the site has had a busy history. A small community sprouted up around it complete with mills and a tavern. Today nothing remains of the ford's rich history and once again looks much the same as it did prior to 1758...

The signage at the beginning of the trail was a bit lacking. Due to heavy traffic from folks swimming nearby there is a bit of a maze of trails in the first tenth of a mile. The actual Buckquarter Creek Trail continues on past this sign for the group campground...

There were a plethora of mushrooms along this hike so I decided it would be appropriate to include a few like this, the Emetic (or Vomiting) Russula. You can tell by its alternate name what is likely to happen to you if you try to eat this one...